Happy Merry!

Whew, 2014 - you were a doozy!

Mt. Drum, 3PM 1-2-2015, 2F

A year ago I was very much looking forward to my stay-cation, which I needed to get away from being stressed out at work (Thanks, Obama - you and your stupid health care reform...).  A year ago I was living in a condo, employed, and stressed out.

Now I'm in Alaska, happily the home-maker, and feeling stress-free!

What a difference a year can make!

I am very much looking forward to seeing what will come in 2015.  After last year, I am not even going to guess what my world will look like in a year.


We had good holidays.  A traditional turkey Thanksgiving dinner.  Fajitas and Skyping to open presents for Christmas.  Driving through a snow storm and fireworks for New Years.

our Christmas "tree" this year

Christmas selfie with Rylee!
We opened presents at 8AM our time, so it was just out of bed and put on the glasses.

got to see the new kitties on Skype.

I made tortillas while Jeff made the veggies for the fajitas.

The road down to our little subdivision.

We went to Anchorage for the night before New Year's Eve, and saw this amazing sky.

my first moose sighting since I got to Alaska

After our very slow drive through very fat snowflakes, on Dec 31, we went over to the church.  It looked like most churches in the area were having gatherings that night, which is nice because there's not a whole lot of places to go out.  It's either church or a house party around here.
We had a really good time.  We had snacks, games, and fireworks.  They don't do fireworks at the 4th of July up here, because it just doesn't get dark enough.  We even sent off wish lanterns, which was so very cool.  It was when we were watching the fireworks that I noticed a ring around the moon.  It's called a moon dog, and caused by the light of the moon reflecting off of ice crystals in the atmosphere.  It was amazing, but not photographable by Jeff's phone.


And then (since I didn't get around to posting this...) on Saturday night I finally saw the Northern Lights!  We were awake late, and knew that our forecast for the lights was high, so Jeff headed outside (all bundled up) and took a look.  There they were, a light green, meandering through the sky.  So I suited up and joined him out there.  There was no wind, so it didn't feel nearly as cold as it was.  The moon was 99.1% out, so it was very bright out.  And the stars - they were so twinkly!  I thought one was a plane, but then using the binoculars saw that the entire rainbow of colors was sparkling around it.  Well, we figured that it must be due to the ice crystals in the atmosphere, just like the moon dog.  It was really very awesome.

And with that, I wish you a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2015.  What will it hold for you?